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So one of the top Moto racers at Baja 500 last weekend, Nic Garvin, was seriously injured and is lucky to be alive. Got in a head on with a UTV. The post I read from Desert Assasins makes it sound like he wasn't on the race course when it happened.
Can anyone with some insight explain how this happened?
*Edited my original post as I now understand better and I do not want to come across as accusatory like my original post did.
Can anyone with some insight explain how this happened?
*Edited my original post as I now understand better and I do not want to come across as accusatory like my original post did.
As far as the cheating aspect, I don't race Baja so I can't say anything about that. Would assume that people would try to though due to human nature. I remember seeing it happen blatantly in Dust to Glory. Would have to venture out and think that the GPS tracking is cutting down on that, I thought it had some feature that said when it was too far off course
He was on the cross-over road riding rather cautiously and STILL got smashed by a UTV.
Sadly, from my own experience, nothing good is happening for us off-roaders in the upper part of the peninsula...as of late. And that's coming from a guy that loves Baja and just got done riding another Rip to Cabo.
The Shop
Also, pretty sure Shane flew him to San Diego. Shane is a trail-buddy, fellow Ripper, Texas Bad Ass and an absolute kook on the trail. My kind of peeps.
I always hear stories of other "creative" race craft, though.
Xeno would know for sure.
There was a time when the really fast guys went AROUND the Sta Rita Whoops...went AROUND the Silt Beds...etc.
I was having fun with it.
In 2010 I was chasing the JCR team at Baja 1000 and we had an accident on the same Cut-across road. We came around a blind corner and there's two locals cutting the corner too tight in a Toyota mini truck. We smashed into the driver's side of the Toyota. Really no damage at all to the chase truck. Nobody injured fortunately. We we not speeding or in a hurry becusae we already finished our chase duties by following the two race bikes from Ojos to San Matias.
I feel horrible for Nic, and the one thing I want to convey is that he certianly wasn't in a hurry on this transfer section. His teammates had to cover at least 250 miles of rough race course before Nic would see the bike again. That's 5 to 6 hours. The transfer section from Valle T to San Vicente is probably an hour and a half at a mellow, trail-ride pace.
Plenty of time to transfer to the rider change pit, have a rest, hydrate and wait for the race bike.
I edited my original post to not paint Nic in any shady light.
Man, that is some scary shtuff.
He had desert savvy that can only come through the school of hard knocks.
It was pretty amazing to hear him talk about taking notes while pre-running and literally knowing whether to go inside or outside on corners for hundreds of miles of race course.
Hell of a dude, NW guy, maybe the same guy.
Pit Row
Edit- might not be old enough. Well, maybe.
Dude is an absolute wealth of knowledge on reading terrain in the desert and any Honda 4 stroke built before 2007ish is in pretty good hands if he's turning the wrenches!
I remember seeing him come down to pre-run one year . . . he had bought some old POS four- door sedan car, taken off the trunk lid and had his bike IN THE TRUNK. hahahahhahaha
Another famous story about how he had a wheel bearing fail on his trailer. Being a PNW guy, of course he had a chainsaw with him so he went out, cut down a tree and chopped it into blocks. Then he would chain a block to the
trailer as a skid and replace as needed till he got to where he could fix it. Great dude.
The Finke Desert Race was on this weekend here in OZ. A 2 day 'there and back' desert event.
Sadly, a race vehicle went off course, hit some spectators, one of who died. Another is said to be in critical condition.
It was on prime time TV news (not the actual accident, and, even without an accident, that inevitably attracts 'Vulture News', it is covered every year in the regular Sports News TV segments)), and a Lady who was standing beside the departed, was interviewed. She said (and another bloke said), they were just too close. But, at the pace those vehicles and bikes go, if something goes wrong, too close could be a long way from the course.....
They stopped the race - it was on the 2nd day, on the return - but some of the field had finished. They said Toby Price had won in his (US 'Trophy' spec, I think) Truck.
If those Trucks were Race related, and it's common for support vehicles to do that, cripes, it's surprising that the Mexicans allow you blokes to use their country as an Off Road play ground. $$$$$$$ brought in, I guess.
I'd just sat down to check e-mails on this very thing. Thanks for gettin' it done.
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